Scotland get World Cup campaign back on track.

Townsend hails display as World Cup hopes stay alive

“That was a true reflection of who we are and what we are capable of, and what playing for Scotland means to the players,” said Townsend.

“It was a tough challenge to face, knowing that if we underperformed we were out of the World Cup.

“Last week we missed the beginning of the game and I take responsibility for not preparing the team well enough to start well against Ireland. Tonight was great to see them get the rewards for their effort.

“We are glad we got (the bonus point). To win and play better was the target and anything extra would be an exceptional performance.

“We are still in the tournament and the bonus point gives us an opportunity to go to our next match and get maximum points again. If we do that it will be a match against Japan to get to the quarterfinals.”

Townsend paid tribute to his inexperienced back row, which he had to replace wholesale from the first game.

“I thought Jamie Ritchie was outstanding,” he continued.

“To think he could have missed the World Cup with his cheek injury – to come back from surgery to do that showed what an exceptional player he is, but also his character.

“Magnus (Bradbury) gave us go-forward and hit hard in the tackle and fronted up against their big men.

“Blade (Thomson), as he has done for us so far, did the little things really well. He made good decisions and was technically very good in the lineouts and base of the scrum and linking forwards and backs.”

Townsend also paid tribute to star man Stuart Hogg, who launched a superb drop goal from 40 metres to take Scotland 20-0 ahead at half-time.

“He is over the moon with his drop goal – he’s been practising them in training,” said Townsend.

“He kicked a goal from 60m in training yesterday. Stuart is a real team man. You can see pace and power in his game. He kicks to touch for us, kicks restarts, and his ability to put others into space is excellent.

“He’s maturing into an all-round player who can help the team to win in different ways.”

Japan lit up the 2015 World Cup with their famous win over South Africa but Saturday’s giant-killing repeat was bad news for the Dark Blues, leaving them potentially needing three bonus-point wins to qualify.

But they had to wait until the 74th minute to chalk off the first of those extras as Ed Fidow resorted to illegal means to prevent Maitland scoring his second try.

Gauzere was not fooled by his kneeslide which dislodged the ball from the Saracens wing’s grasp as he slid in at the corner and flashed a second yellow card at the Samoan wideman, who had already been sin-binned having conceded an earlier penalty try for stopping a Fraser Brown-led driven maul.

Townsend added: “The goal was to win the game and we believed with the pressure we built that opportunities would come in the second half.

“You have to play the full 80 to get the bonus point. We are glad we got it.

“To win and play better was the target and anything extra would be an exceptional performance and it was, especially in the first half.”

The result was the first time Scotland have blanked out an opposition under Townsend’s reign and he said: “That’s a real credit to the players and to Matt Taylor, our defence coach, who does a fantastic job.

“He puts systems in place and he motivates players to defend. Tonight they defended with passion. They got off the line and put big hits on big men and did it time and time again.”